TIKTAALIKA’s Charlie Griffiths – “We Have To Eternally Be Thankful To DREAM THEATER For Totally Reinvigorating Progressive Music”

What truly is progressive music? Each month BraveWords will aim to dissect that answer with a thorough overview of the current musical climate that is the prog world. Old and new, borrowed and blue. A musical community without borders. So watch for a steady and spaced-out array of features, current news and a buyer’s guide checklist to enhance the forward-thinking musical mind. So, welcome to BraveWords’ monthly column appropriately titled, Between A Rock In A Prog Place.

In this month’s column, Haken guitarist Charlie Griffiths discusses the new album by his solo project, Tiktaalika, in addition to the current state of prog, and if there was ever a point where prog was in danger of going the way of the dodo.

How do you approach writing and recording solo material, compared to your work with Haken?

Writing solo material is something I can do 100% for myself and really immerse myself in writing the music and lyrics and forming a complete collection of songs, which are totally from my point of view. I start with writing and demoing all the music first, which takes a few months of putting riffs together and programming drums like a big puzzle. Next, I write lyrics and figure out how they fit with the music by demoing myself singing so all the words and melodies are set. With Haken, it’s a very similar process, except it’s a collaboration between 6 people. There’s a lot more back and forth and discussion, with lots of different ideas to filter through and find what works best for the song. I really enjoy both writing styles so I consider myself very lucky to be able to do both.

I understand that several guests appear on the album. How did they get involved?

As I only take care of the guitar playing on the album, I need to call on some talented friends of mine to play and sing the parts. Drummer Darby Todd played on the first Tiktaalika record, and was my first choice for this one. I knew he’d deliver both the straight ahead 4/4 grooves as well as throwing in some of his unique fills, and the insane kick drum skills he’s developed in the last few years of playing Strapping Young Lad tunes with Devin Townsend! For bass duties I asked Conner Green, my good friend in Haken, to come up with more Cliff Burton style bass parts, which are more independent from the guitar riffs and enhance and deepen the harmony and grooves.

I have 4 amazing vocalists, who I pick based on the vocal style I feel would suit the song. Daniëll de Jongh sings with Textures and has an incredible melodic and soulful range, as well as the brutal screams. He sings on three songs including the title track. Next, I asked my friend Vladimir Lalic to sing on a couple of tracks, which I envisaged with a more theatrical delivery, like King Diamond or Warrel Dane. Vladimir absolutely blew me away on both songs, but particularly with “Mesozoic Mantras.” Last but not least is Rody Walker from Protest the Hero, who again has an amazing range, coupled with a high energy delivery, perfect for the Anthrax style melodic delivery I was looking for. I’m very fortunate that all the guys agreed to work on the album!

Please discuss the track “Gods Of Pangaea” and its video.

This is the title track on the album and is one of the longer format songs with a few different sub sections within the song. I was aiming to make the groove and riffs quite straightforward and simple, akin to Metallica’s self-titled album or Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction, which has some of my favorite songwriting ever. When recording bass, Conner commented that the chorus has an Avenged Sevenfold flavor, which I didn’t think of at the time but I can totally hear that. The latter half of the song moves to a faster groove with a more technical riff and some cool lead guitar harmonies.

The video is essentially a skit myself and artist Dan Goldsworthy put together, in which he sends me a black and white outline version of the album cover and you see me attempting to color it in! Dan and I have a bit of a history of making parody videos as we’ve got a series of Christmas “Sleigher” videos which are festive versions of Slayer, coupled with some animation. We also worked on the original Timmy Taalik music videos and we’re working on an epic new one for the next single!

Is there a meaning behind the album cover image?

The idea behind the cover was to pay homage to the early ’90s Ed Repka style, on the Megadeth and Death albums. Those are my favorite album covers and I remember getting onto those albums because I saw the vinyls in the record shop. I thought it’d be cool if somebody happens to find Gods Of Pangaea in a record store and assume it’s an album from 1991. The evil preacher on the cover is a good old heavy metal idea and coupling it with some kind of dinosaur cult church building was something I’ve never seen before, so it’s both something nostalgic and something new.

Do you plan on playing shows in support of the album?

I don’t have any solid plans yet, but I think this collection of songs would work really well live. I get asked about it all the time, so it seems like people want to see it. It’s definitely something I’m considering working around Haken’s schedule in future.

What lays in store next for Haken?

We’ve just put the finishing touches on our live album and Blu-Ray release which was filmed at the famous Forum in Kentish Town, London. The show is 3 hours long and features our Fauna album in full and also a song or two from each of our other albums, including two epics! The London crowd really brought the energy too and made it a very special night which we’re excited to share with the world! As well as that we’re working away on new material for our next album, but it’s too early to talk about that in any detail.

Who are some modern day prog band that you fancy?

I really enjoyed Nospun’s Opus album which was amazingly creative. Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere is a masterpiece of progressive death metal, like a cross between Morbid Angel and Pink Floyd.

Was there ever a part in music history when prog was in danger of reaching extinction?

I suppose prog music was obviously a big part of the ’70s, but fell off during the ’80s, which was probably the closest it’s come to dying. Some of my favorite albums were released then however, like 90125 by Yes, or the King Crimson albums with Adrian Belew. We have to eternally be thankful to Dream Theater for totally reinvigorating progressive music, with Images and Words. I remember hearing “Pull Me Under” in early ’93 I think, and it was life-changing for me and many others who decided to follow that path!

Between A Rock And A Prog Place News Blast

Prog-fusion trio the Aristocrats (featuring Guthrie Govan/guitar, Bryan Beller/bass, Marco Minnemann/drums) will be touring the US in April and May, with tickets already on sale. Frost* recently unveiled a standalone single, “Western Atmosphere,” which can be enjoyed below.

UK progressive rockers IQ will issue their first new studio album in 6 years, Dominion, on March 28th. Portuguese prog metallists, Phase Transition, will be issuing their debut LP, In Search of Being, on June 6th, and a video for the lead-off single, “Becoming, (R)evolution” can be viewed here.

A new book by author Andrew Wild, A Playground Of Broken Hearts – The Progressive Rock Revival 1984 to 1989, will be published on July 3rd, and can indeed be pre-ordered. Prog metallists Jinjer return this month with a new LP, Duél, and its title track can be inspected below.

Italian band Benthos recently unleashed the single “Pure” from their forthcoming-yet-still-untitled studio album, which you can enjoy here. Progressive rock power duo McStine & Minnemann have dropped their new single, “Survive”, along with an accompanying music video and the announcement of their third album, III, due April 4.

February 2025 New Albums

February 7
Dream Theater- Parasomnia
Hawkwind- Space Ritual (50th anniversary Blu-ray audio edition)
Jinjer- Duél
Majestica- Power Train

February 14
John Lodge- Love Conquers All
Pattern-Seeking Animals- Friend Of All Creatures

February 21
Jason Bieler And The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra- The Escapologist

February 28
Kevin Godley and Lol Crème- Parts of the Process: The Complete Godley and Crème
Steve Hackett with Djabe, Freya- Arctic Jam
The Residents- Doctor Dark (CD reissue; 2LP vinyl edition)
Supertramp- Live In Paris ’79

Classic Clip

With the arrival of a new Dream Theater album this month, and the first with Mike Portnoy in nearly 16 years, what better time to revisit a vintage video from the greatest prog band to ever hail from Long Island, New York? Upon doing a search for “the most complex Dream Theater song” on the internet, it seemed like the instrumental “The Dance of Eternity” takes the cake, as it contains supposedly 108 time signature changes!